Butterflies Eating Fruit - A Photo Gallery

Butterflies are such beautiful creatures, and studying them has been a joy for me for many many years now. It is well known, that butterflies most often like nectar in flowers as a food source. Many people may not realize how much some butterflies love fruit. Fruit juice and even, or especially, rotting fruit is something that will bring butterflies to your yard if you are trying to attract them.

In their native habitats, fruit often ripens on trees and then falls to the forest floor. In jungles and all sorts of settings, fruit is not going to waste even when its over ripe for us. We have seen this ourselves with a fig tree that put off too many figs to keep up with. All kinds of exotic looking beetles even came, to get into the feeding frenzy which was fallen figs on a hot summer's day.

In these photos, you will see butterflies enjoying some different fruit.

Photo 1 - A butterfly enjoying a dragon fruit. I think dragon fruit are beautiful, and was happy to find this photo. I take most of my butterfly photos that you see in my hubs, since I am such a fanatic with butterflies, but I had none that included a great shot of fruit like this first one. They also have orange sections here, and it is a nice display in what I imagine is a conservatory of some kind.

Photos 2 and 3 - These two photos show butterflies eating from bananas or plantains. They love these fruits sliced open and just set out in room temperature. In the setting this was taken in, there are warmer temperatures, so the butterflies sense the fruit and are very attracted. It is a very tropical setting. I like the one where it is set out on a huge plate over the water area. So many will congregate there.

Photo 4 - More bananas and also some nectarine slices are put out for these butterflies. I love seeing more than one kind of butterfly enjoying the different fruits put out on plates or on the tree trunks.

Photo 5 - This was a neat find for me, as this is fruit on a beach, in the sand. Probably left over from someone's lunch, but I don't know for sure as I didn't take this photo. I do know it is left out, exposed, and in the warmth. All perfect requirements for a butterfly to find and really have a great meal.

Thanks for taking the time to look over my hub and view the butterflies enjoying their fruit. Sometime, this summer perhaps, I hope to have a great way to put out fruit, that the ants won't want to get into too much. I know there are special kinds of holders, etc. It may just attract some extra visitors than I normally get in my butterfly garden.